


All We Need To Do Is Prove It

by floatingearth



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aged Up Gaang, Alternate Universe - Noir, Angst with a Happy Ending, Artistic License, Avatar Day, Big City Setting, Brother Sister Relationship, F/M, Married Kataang, Private Eye Sokka, murder investigation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:47:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24781045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/floatingearth/pseuds/floatingearth
Summary: Aang's been arrested for a murder he obviously didn't commit. All Sokka and Katara need to do is convince the world he's an innocent man. How hard could it be?
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	All We Need To Do Is Prove It

**Author's Note:**

> Accuracy? I don't know her

Tonight was one of his bad nights, one of those nights where his brain just couldn’t shut up. All he could think about was her. Yue was dead, and it was his fault. Sure, Sokka hadn’t killed her, but he might as well have. There were so many things he could have done differently, and so many things he hadn’t done. It was only right that she haunted his dreams. For hours, he tossed and turned. 

Sokka sat upright and groaned. It was time to give up. There was only one way to shut off that little angry part of his brain..It was time to get to work. He got dressed, ran a comb through his hair, and headed to the office three city blocks away. 

The skies opened up as soon as he left his office. At first, it was only a soft, misty drizzle, but that didn’t last long. Every step he took, the weather got worse. He held his jacket over his head like an umbrella. It clung, soaked through and heavy, to his arms. Of course it was raining. It had been such a nice night before, Sokka thought, rolling his eyes. This was just what he needed.

Streetlamps bounced off the damp sheen of the streets, reflecting blurry pools of light. The city was quiet at night. He passed empty corner stores, deserted streets, and abandoned newspaper stands, boasting headlines about a landslide in Gao Ling, Chin the Great’s mysterious disappearance, and the Flameo’s upcoming world tour. By the time he reached the office, he was soaked through.

Sokka fumbled for his keys for a moment, in the alcove outside the door. He threw his jacket over the radiator to dry, and went to make himself a cup of coffee strong enough to wake the dead. Then he got to work. For a blessed moment, she was off his mind. 

Pale blue moonlight streamed in through his office blinds as the nighttime thunderstorm roared outside his window. Sokka nursed his coffee, pouring over case files, stacks of paperwork, and the occasional bills he’d been putting off paying... Before long, the drink was a cold and bitter swill. He barely noticed the taste. Somehow, despite all the coffee he drank, Sokka had never really developed a taste for it, but he still took it black. Adding coffee or sugar felt like giving up, and he had to stay awake somehow. 

The door flew open, jerking Sokka out of his head. He jumped to his feet, sending the papers on his desk flying, and kicking the desk chair to the floor. Ready to fight off the intruder, he reached for the boomerang on his belt. Then he saw who it was, and felt incredibly stupid. 

“Katara?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.“It’s almost three in the morning! Can’t you nag me about how I need to really clean up in here at a reasonable hour?” 

“What, do I need an appointment?” Katara bristled. She crossed her arms over her chest and shot him a glare sharp as a knife. 

“Usually I’d make an exception for you. But it’s the principle of the thing! I-” 

“Just shut up,” Katara waved a hand in front of his face. “It’s important, Sokka!” 

Something clicked. This was serious. Something had happened, something bad. He reached out a hand, patting her arm in support. “What’s wrong? Katara, talk to me.” 

“It’s Aang,” she said. Her eyes were huge and frantic. She looked like she had years ago, when they were kids, and she was begging him to fix everything that he just couldn’t. “He got arrested.”

Now, there was a sentence he couldn’t make sense of. Sokka had known his brother in law for ten years. He’d met him long before Aang and Katara had even started dating. Aang was one of Sokka’s best friends, and probably the gentlest person he’d known in his life. Aang didn’t even have it in him to kill spider flies. He caught them, and carried them outside, and set them on little patches of grass. It was hard to imagine a criminal Aang.. 

“What did he do?” 

“That’s the thing, Sokka,” Katara said. The red-hot anger in her voice grew until she was practically screaming. “He didn’t do anything. You know he didn’t do anything. I know he didn’t do anything. I’m telling you, they have the wrong guy!”

“Katara, slow down. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

“Murder. They think-” she laughed, like if she didn’t, she’d start crying. “They think he killed Chin.” 

“What?” Sokka dragged a hand through his hair. “That’s insane. There’s no way that’s true.” 

“Try telling that to the judge.” 

“You know, what?” Sokka said. “I’ll do it.” There was no other choice. He had to. Sokka loved Katara and he loved Aang. What kind of man was he if he didn’t help them in a time of crisis? A pretty bad one. “I’ll fix this.”

“You mean you’ll help me fix this,” Katara said.

“Whatever you want to call it.” 

The jail's visiting center had a sterile, empty quality, as if it were out of touch with reality. Maybe it was the empty, gray walls, or the pale, white overhead lights, or the utter lack of windows. Maybe the thing that made it feel so unreal was the man sitting on the other side of the glass. Aang, his best and oldest friend, his brother. Aang, who volunteered for charity and rescued every stray animal he found. 

Aang, who’d been accused of murder. 

“Aang, buddy,” Sokka said, “What did you do?” 

Aang hung his head, locking his fingers together behind his neck. He let out a quiet sigh. “ I didn’t do anything! I couldn’t, even if I wanted to. You have to believe me. You have to!”

“Wait.” Sokka raised an eyebrow. “You said you wanted to.” 

Aang groaned. “Not you, too! No! Sokka. I don’t belong here.” 

“Yeah, no kidding. Look at yourself.” 

The man looked like a wreck. Yeah, he was looking pretty miserable, alright.He hadn’t slept at all in the past two days and it showed. There were heavy bags under his eyes.. He had this dragged down, exhausted shakiness to him. Any second now, Aang could shatter into a million pieces, and Sokka wouldn’t even be that surprised.

“I know.” Aang said. Then he started rambling. It was a nervous, scatterbrained thing.“You have to believe me. Tell me you do. I- I’m not a killer. Just the thought, it makes me sick. I didn’t do it. I couldn’t! I don’t have it in me. I could go to prison, Sokka! I would never put Katara through that if I had a choice!” 

“You already are,” Sokka pointed out, and then winced, even though it was true. His brother in law sagged. 

“Yeah. I know.” 

“Look, Aang, I’m here to clear your name. Do you think I’d be here if I thought you were guilty? I just want to know what really happened.” 

Aang had a run in with Chin a week and a half before he died. That night, he’d had a laundry list of things to get done in Little Kyoshi. It was a great neighborhood. Spending time there was a trip down memory lane. Back in the day, Aang had made so many good memories there. It was a tight-knit community of friends and neighbors. Usually, it was a good place to be. Usually, it was completely safe. 

Usually. 

That night was different. He’d been waiting at the trolley stop, hoping to catch a late-night streetcar home, when he heard a bloodcurdling scream. It made his hair stand up on end. Somebody was hurt. He couldn’t stand by and just let it happen. Somebody was hurt and Aang could help. 

The sight waiting for him was a gruesome one. There were two men in the alley. One stood tall and threatening, arms crossed over his chest. The othe was slumped against a wall, barely conscious. Dark bruises spread along his cheek. Blood trickled from his lips. He spit it at the other man, who glared down at him.

Angry at the show of disrespect, he bent a chunk of stone out of the street and punched it into his victim’s chest.  
Aang had seen that Earthbender before, in the newspapers. It was Chin the Great, and it was almost unbelievable. Everyone said the man was, well, great. They said he was an upstanding man, a fantastic leader in his community. And yet here he was, beating a man half to death. . Talking all the while about how he didn’t stand for this kind of insubordination, that he had to show the rest of the guys what it meant if they tried to leave. 

So he stepped in. It was the only choice he had, and a very bad one. There’s some things you’re just not supposed to see. Aang barely got out of there. It was a miracle he got the other guy out alive at all. He didn’t even notice for two days that he’d lost his wallet in the fight. 

He’d tried to report it. Nobody had believed him. That’s probably why, now that Chin himself was dead, everyone pointed their fingers at Aang. 

Sokkaleft the precinct. The red glow of the setting sun was almost blinding. There was so much on his mind he almost didn’t notice who was waiting for him. . Katara leaned against the cinderblock building, one foot propped up against the wall. 

“So, what’s next?” She asked. 

“Woah, woah, woah. I never told you I was coming here,” Sokka said. 

Katara rolled her eyes. “Like you had to tell me. It’s not like it was hard to figure it out. Anyway, you’re not doing this alone.”

““Katara, if what Aang says is true- and I believe it is- this is dangerous stuff.” 

“I’m coming, Sokka,” Katara said. “You’re going to tell me what you found out.”

“I know.”He dragged a hand down his face. What point was there in arguing? When Katara put her foot down, she put it down. “Fine. Come on, then. We’ve got a ride to catch.”

**Author's Note:**

> i'm floatingearth on tumblr as well


End file.
